Retirement income planning is an increasingly important piece of the financial safety net. As employers continue to move from defined benefit (DB) to defined contribution (DC) plans, employees are expected to take more responsibility for their retirement saving. Our survey results indicate that U.S. DC plan sponsors are slowly embracing lifetime income solutions such as systematic withdrawals and planning tools. Specific insights include:

Roughly one-quarter of employers (23%) have adopted one or more lifetime income solutions.

Another 18% will either implement a solution this year or consider solutions for next year and beyond.

For employers offering lifetime income solutions, the most prevalent used are systematic withdrawals during retirement (73%), followed by income planning tools (64%) and education (60%).

Employers are reluctant to use insurance-backed products in DC plans despite their effectiveness in minimizing longevity risk.

The private exchange has influenced traditional self-managed plans for active employees in ways scarcely imagined even five years ago. This Perspectives by Randall Abbott, senior strategist and a North American leader in our Health and Benefits practice, looks at how converging forces are prompting some employers to explore the employer-configured marketplace as a vehicle for modernizing group benefits.

In its recent publication on human capital management/HR technology transformation in the digital workplace, Gartner, the world's leading information technology research and advisory company, highlights areas where rapid adoption, or transformative impact, is shaping HR processes and solutions. We agree with Gartner — and we believe it’s the combination of human capital strategy, relevant technology and a change implementation approach that forms these solutions and creates desired outcomes.
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Calls for greater board diversity and gender pay equality are not new, but recent developments indicate that both issues are currently getting investors’ and legislators’ attention. As public scrutiny surrounding these issues increases, it’s not a stretch to imagine a new disclosure requirement or Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) guidance on these topics in the not-too-distant future.
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